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To contrast rates of initial HPV vaccine uptake, offered at no cost, between a rural clinic, a rural community college, and an urban college clinic and to identify rural versus urban differences in uptake of free booster doses.

Methods

Young rural women attending rural clinics (n = 246), young women attending a rural community college (n = 251) and young women attending an urban university health clinic (n = 209) were recruited in Kentucky. After completing a brief questionnaire, women received a free voucher for HPV vaccination. Whether women redeemed the voucher for the initial dose of vaccine served as the study outcome variable.

Findings

In controlled analyses, the contrast in initial uptake between urban clinic women (reference category) and rural college women was significant (P < .0001). However, the contrast in initial uptake between urban clinic women (reference category) and rural clinic women was not significant (P = .42). The model predicting uptake of subsequent doses among those with initial uptake (n = 235) also indicated significant differences as a function of recruitment location, with rural clinic women being about 7 times more likely than urban clinic women (P < .0001) to not return for at least 1 follow-up dose. The contrast between urban clinic women and rural college women was also significant (P = .014).

Conclusion

Initial uptake of free HPV vaccination among young rural college women may be problematic. Moreover, uptake of subsequent free doses among rural women may be problematic regardless of whether contact is made in a clinic or through college recruitment.

Women in Appalachian Kentucky experience a high burden of cervical cancer and have low rates of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The purpose of this study was to identify normative influences predicting initial HPV vaccine uptake among a sampl...

Purpose : Uptake and completion of the 3-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is important for the primary prevention of cervical cancer. However, HPV vaccination rates among adolescent females and young women remain low in certain geographic area...